Grant Review and Support Program (GRASP)

Fundamental to the program is the belief that to be successful one must adequately plan for and project manage their grant applications. To support this, each participant is provided a customized work plan developed (and routinely updated) by GRASP faculty. Using a timeline of a four- or five-year Career Development Award, the work plan maps out annual tasks required to successfully apply for NIH R01 or equivalent funding, with the goal of minimizing a gap in funding. Work plans are provided to participants through individual Google Sheets and are shared during the orientation workshop. Google Sheets easily facilitates collaboration between the GRASP team and participants.

We recommend reviewing your work plan tasks at least once a month and updating your work plan as needed. However, as each work plan is individualized, you are welcome to review it more frequently. Most participants spend about 15-30 minutes a month working on their work plans. 

We understand that a work plan is not everyone’s project management style, however, we ask that all GRASP participants use their work plan to stay on track and remain engaged in the program. As mentioned, the time commitment is limited to approximately 15-30 minutes per month to review your tasks, update your work plan as necessary, and to ask questions to your mentor.

GRASP staff have weekly office hours to meet with participants who need assistance formatting their work plan or have logistical or other questions. To set up a meeting, email grasp@catalyst.harvard.edu. 

Yes. We encourage you to share your work plan with your mentor and any other collaborators. It can be referenced when reviewing progress towards your grant submission. 

Each task on your work plan has detailed sub-tasks. These sub-tasks are automatically hidden and to view them you must click the ‘+’ sign on the left of each task. It is critical that you expand tasks as you move through the work plan, as the subtasks contain important content.

Your work plan was shared with you via a Google Sheet link in an email that was sent before the Orientation Workshop. We ask participants to share their work plans with their Gmail accounts so you can  access your work plan by navigating to your Google Drive and searching for the file name ‘Your Last Name_Work Plan’. If you are unable to locate your work plan, please email  grasp@catalyst.harvard.edu and we can send you the link. 

We hold weekly office hours where faculty answer complex grant-related questions and address other concerns.

Yes – during your mentoring group meetings, you will have the opportunity to share work plan updates and ask questions of your GRASP mentor.